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elliott williams, let me start with you. i want your reaction to part of at trump and his attorneys are claiming in this new filing just been released. "in a trial about first amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict firth amendment rites. worse, it does so against the administration's primary political opponent during an election season when they have campaigned on the indictment and proliferated the false allegations." what do you make of that argument? >> it's an argument they've been rolling out a lot, the idea that the president was empowered to speak and he's being prosecuted on the words he said leading up to january 6th. this whole back and forth is call a discovery dispute. it's not uncommon in trials to have one side say this is how we believe evidence should be handled and the other side disagrees. they'll probably work it out in the end. two big issues. what to make of statements trump has made in the past. he hasn't mishandled evidence yet, and the judge will have to assess what do we may of things tha

but elliott williams points out someone's status as an attorney doesn't give them carte blanche to break the law. >> an attorney can provide legal representation to a client as long as they are not urging that client to commit a crime or committing a crime themselves. and the mere fact that these individuals were attorneys doesn't somehow absolve them. >> reporter: giuliani is charged as part of a broader racketeering conspiracy encompassing all 19 defendants. but he is also facing several additional charges including making false statements to the georgia house and senate when he testified in 2020 about bogus voter fraud claims and urged state lawmakers to overturn the results. >> ten ways to demonstrate that this election was stolen that the votes were phony. dead people, felons, phony ballot, phony mail-in ballots. >> reporter: and john eastman and kenneth cheesesebro outline plans to get it overturned. and jeff clark who drafted a letter that he opened doj would send to various state leaders including in georgia falsely proclaiming fraud in their states. >> regarding in voter fraud a

more with josh dawsey of "the washington post" and zolan kanno-youngs and sarah longwell and elliott williamsnever a dull moment. already underway here in august. but elliott, these about the court cases at the end of the day. let' talk about zack's new reporting. what did you hear there? that donald trump was in an oval office discussion that they were involved in interfering with counting votes. >> i hear computer trespass. what it looks like is that the district attorney is putting together a racketeering or rico case that involves in effect proving that a criminal enterprise exists to commit two different crimes in the state of georgia. computer trespass and forgery and tampering and election interference and i think that is what it seems like she's doing and then there is a host of other crimes as we. >> and politically their invest pressure election officials, we remember the perfect phone call which we may play in a little bit. the plot to put forward the fake electors an now this voting system breach in rural coffee county. these are separate pieces. we know zack smith is zeroing in o

joining us is cnn mpolitical analyst, and cnn legal analyst, elliott williams.o. they see this memo as showing that this wasn't just ideas and advice, if you will. that this was a criminal scheme. that's why it was included in this indictment. where do you see it crossing the line. what do you see here? the acknowledgement as jessica noted, this is a bold, controversial strategy which is, itself a recognition that they certainly know they're testing the bounds of the law, if not stepping over it, and look, that's going to be for a jury to sort out. the line that struck me in particular and they use it a few times in the memo is sort of toward the end where he says there should be messaging that presents this as a routine measure. it's this idea that they wanted to make clear to the public that whatever they were doing was the natural order of business and that itself, i think, could come in as evidence sort of how exactly how controversial it was, that they needed to present to the public how routine it was or at least that they thought it was routine and there'

former federal prosecutor, elliott williams. former trump attorney, tim parlatore.tim, i want to start with you. you have the special insight into this, of course. we're learning tonight about what could happen in the next ten days or so, a surrender to fulton county officials, the sheriff says he's gonna have to go to a county jail, basically. what do you expect to happen if you are his attorney? is it something you get over, with or you wait until the last second here. >> i think they're probably gonna want to wait till the last second, just because what we've seen consistently throughout these cases, the game of inches of trying to delay it out a little bit more. so, if they had ten days, and you surrender on the first day, if you're trying to drag the case out past the election, why not take the extra ten days. if it wasn't a case where you had an election, i would take my client in today. but that's a different calculus. >> of course, between today and the very last possible day, which is next friday, there is a presidential debate. another topic just today, on

. >> elliott williams is with us as well. elliott, all of this is unfolding.criminal defense attorney in atlanta, stephen site out. somebody who has an excellent reputation. he got rid of his own attorney. what you make of it? >> it's not just the reputation. it's the fact that he has expertise in rico cases and not all lawyers are created equal. wolf and expertise's are very important. just like in medicine, you wouldn't want a cardiologist operating on your shoulder. you don't want someone who doesn't have rico experience trying your rico case. what trump has done here, it is a sign or recognition of how serious is this in number two, that they intended to challenge the basis for some of the racketeering charges that have been brought here. it's actually the rare instance of a smart lawyer hiring decision by the trump team. they have a practice, sort of, of bringing cronies and people who are lawyer to their causes and it's actually bringing in a grown-up to help day >> i will give you an example of how serious they are taking it. this is something that scar

correspondent evan perez, tmnt for the atlanta journal-constitution and former federal prosecutor elliott williams. commentator adam kings, injure and political commentator the carrie sellers. i am so glad to have all of you here, but let's talk right now about what we just heard from the former president of the united states, that he did nothing wrong, essentially he believes that he can challenge, it is true but it is the way that you go about doing it. that was the crux of the january 6th investigation, right? >> look, i was there on january six. he did, he challenged it like 50 times in court? only one minor case, everything else was thrown out. and, at that point, he decided for three hours he sat in the oval office and, for the first time in his life, proactively resisted peer pressure to act. u.s. person thing in his ear, he'll do it, i'll say it. for the first time he proactively sat on his hands while the capital is under attack, only when law enforcement turned the tide of the battle that people get ridley come out and say something. look, i am angry tonight and i'm angry because we've g

i'm joined now by a pair of federal prosecutors, ali conan -- elliott williams, who was senior investigative6th congressional committee. he may have been on air with me till 2 am last night. if you look at the 19 people, one of those faces, mark meadows, is now rey trying to get his case moved from the state courhe federal court. obviously, that's something we're hearing trump is also going to try to do. do you think he'll be successful? >> it's interesting, and i think an important candidate by mark meadows, and surely donald trump will follow. this body of lock goes back to the early 1900s, and it basically says if somebody who is a federal official gets charged criminally by a state or a county, as in the dea, then if the conduct relates to your job as a federal official, you can move on to federal court. i think it's a 50/50 chance if he succeeds. but if he does, here's what it means. it means first of all, he gets a much better jury pool. because instead of strong from fulton county, which one 72 to 26% against donald trump, now you're drawn from the northern counties of georgia, some o

justice correspondent evan perez, cnn special correspondent jamie jungle and cnn legal analyst, elliott williams. evan, i want to start with you so, the days went to be thursday. do you know anything more about what that's going to look like what the plan is for him? it's not going to look like any of the others and that's kind of a strange thing to say. the former, president this is his fourth time being arrested and processed as part of an indictment part of answering chain charges. in this case, the sheriff's office in atlanta says they're going to treat him like any other defendant. he's got a lot of different when he turned himself in in new york and certainly in the federal system that then within a mugshot. and this, case they are going to take a mugshot and fingerprints, they're going to do all the things we normally. do >> that's a choice, they don't necessarily have to do. it >> right, they've chosen to do it like they've done others. and, importantly, he's going to be turning himself in at the jail which is the fulton county jail is sort of a very dark place. it's a place that's getti

elliott williams and scott jennings are back. karen, let me start with you because you do know jack smith and we did see him briefly come to the cameras. it's a brief statement. he clearly doesn't like being in front of the cameras, that is clear, but he's put that out. knowing him, reading this, what do you think this day was like for him? >> i think he did his job. he's a public servant and he did what he had to do. he wanted to get the information out there clear and from his words before donald trump had a chance to spin it. i think he also kept it short and sweet. i thought it was wonderful that he praised the heroes of the capitol that day who -- it gave me the chills who he said they protected the building and the people in it but our democracy, our people and our values. that's who jack smith is. that's what he believes in. he's a public servant. he's been a public servant his whole career. it was both our first jobs out of law school. we worked at the manhattan da's job together and we were a small group and we were trai

elliott williams, laura coates, and paul, thank you so much for joining us.ning. i'm paul begala. paula reid. we'll have coverage of the gop debate. join us on wednesday for the republican presidential debate, post-game analysis hosted by anderson cooper and dana bash at 11:00 p.m. eastern. now giuliani, what happened to america's mayor, is up next. - ladies and gentlemen, america's mayor, rudy giuliani. - today, i am officially announcing my withdrawal as a candidate for president of the united states. - very difficult night for rudy giuliani. >>> ladieso ma and gentlemen, america's mayor. >> today, i'm officially announcing my withdraw as a candidate for the president of the united states. >> it's a very difficult night for rudy giuliani. >> we are going to make our country great again. >> giuliani sees one thing, opportunity. >> trump is clearly the best choice. >> he thought this would put me back in the spotlight. >> what i did for new york, donald trump will do for america. >> she was down in palm beach. i moved on her and i failed. he was married. >> s

. >> let's bring in former federal prosecutor ellet williams and michael singleton. so, elliott, this is supposed to be time number 4 for donald trump. he is going to go to the jail thursday and friday, according to a source. you have a sense of how the processing is going to look different in a county jail, versus a federal courtroom, or even the new york city, manhattan courtroom? >> the challenge here, abby, is you have a former president of the united states, who is entitled, by law, to 24-hour secret service detention. and whenever the president is in the custody of someone other than secret service, it is cause for alarm. the question is, was he ever put into a jail cell, or the population? and number three, how was he handled? setting aside whether he ought to be held guilty for the things he is accused of and so on, there are serious safety considerations. now, another question we all have to ask is is this really just like any other case, or are there going to be accommodations made on the fact that it is a former president. and i do think that, despite the blustery you

williams, and also anthony michael kreis, a law professor at georgia state university, who has been following the fulton county case closely. and also gloria borger, cnn's chief political analyst. elliott, i want to start with trump's bond agreement, part of the negotiations that he would also surrender on thursday. and there are these very clear parameters here. trump has to abide by them, including that he is prohibited from any direct or indirect communication about the case with witnesses or codefendants or any direct or indirect threats toward any codefendant, witness, or victim in the case. the agreement says that those rules, quote, shall include posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media. do you think that's fair, or should the judge have waited to draw that line? >> it's absolutely fair. and these are generally unremarkable provisions trying to minimize the fact that a defendant might threaten witnesses or could threaten witnesses in the future. look, any judge lives in the real world and is aware of the history certainly of defendants that come before them, but of this particular defendant and is aware of this defendant's history of s